Ultra portables - Sony or Fujitsu?
Discussion
I'm toying with the idea of buying a very small laptop to use for photography (saving images to disk, burning to DVD and previewing images), as my Thinkpad is just a bit too big and heavy to lug around with the rest of my kit, and battery life isn't that great.
I've narrowed it down to the following two:
Sony Vaio TX2XP
Fujitsu Lifebook P7120
Both are very similar in size and spec, with the Sony having the edge as it has an 80GB HDD compared to 60GB.
My only concern with the Sony, after having a look at one at PC World, is that it seems very flimsy - especially the screen. I've not been able to have a look at the Fujitsu, but I've read that it feels more solid than the Sony, however can suffer from the keys wearing away.
The Sony looks ideal, except I'm not convinced it would survive for long if it's slung in my camera bag.
Does anyone here own or use one of these? If so, what are your thoughts?
I've narrowed it down to the following two:
Sony Vaio TX2XP
Fujitsu Lifebook P7120
Both are very similar in size and spec, with the Sony having the edge as it has an 80GB HDD compared to 60GB.
My only concern with the Sony, after having a look at one at PC World, is that it seems very flimsy - especially the screen. I've not been able to have a look at the Fujitsu, but I've read that it feels more solid than the Sony, however can suffer from the keys wearing away.
The Sony looks ideal, except I'm not convinced it would survive for long if it's slung in my camera bag.
Does anyone here own or use one of these? If so, what are your thoughts?
ehasler said:
I did look at those, along with the little Dell and Thinkpad, but I want one with a built-in DVD writer. 
Yo ed, if you are after an "ultra portable", then it's worth considering one that comes with a docking station, saving the size and weight of the optical drive when you don't need them.
I've got an (albeit oldish) Compaq which is about the size and weight of a magazine, and I've never missed an optical drive when on the go - I can always dock it if I need to burn any data, or use a USB drive.
If you want something well built you could do worse than a Lenovo Thinkpad X60.
ehasler said:
I did look at the Macbook too, which was tempting but thought it was just a bit too big/heavy compared to the other two. I'll take another look at it though as I'd quite like to get a Mac.
The flip side is it is very well built, I used to have a 12" vaio and my macbook is very solid in comparison so might be better for field use? I don't know what the later vaios are like though so it isn't the fairest of comparisons.
m12_nathan said:
The flip side is it is very well built, I used to have a 12" vaio and my macbook is very solid in comparison so might be better for field use? I don't know what the later vaios are like though so it isn't the fairest of comparisons.
That's my only concern with the Sony - it just feels very flimsy.ehasler said:
workshy fop said:
We are using the P7120 at work. It is very solid, looks good, fantastic screen too.
Any issues with the keyboard being a bit flimsy?Just come back from working in japan and thanks to some good contacts I have at sony I had a play with one of these http://tinyurl.com/fy5oh ,but I saw a tiny fujitsu tablet that was a umpc that was even better. Samsung are due to unveil NAND based laptops in the next 8 weeks so if I was in the market, I would hold fire, because NAND looks like changing the UMPC and UP space hugely.
cheers
Simon
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